As Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, the fiction was set in the Renaissance era and therefore the persona of women was reflective of that period. The natural stereotype of that time viewed women as weak, fickle, and dependent of the men in their society and subject to the decisions that men make for them. It was an exceedingly common depiction and very rarely was it proven wrong to the men of that time. Women’s rights were nonexistent in this time period so it wasn’t unusual for the portrayal of women to be so negative and offensive. Given that women of that age had known nothing else they attempted to fit the stereotype to please the ‘natural order’.
The role women played in Hamlet was complicated. Their distinct purpose as characters in the tragedy was to illustrate Hamlet’s warped view of women and give the audience an obvious understanding of Hamlets madness and distress. Hamlets strong unwavering judgment of women was caused by his mother. He had been delusional about women by Gertrude’s actions. He is consumed by the absurdity of his mother’s love for his uncle and is justified to feel disgust towards his mother, her actions and implications and in doing so provoked hamlet’s unforgivable treatment of all women as a whole. Although Hamlet gives off the illusion that Shakespeare is enormously disgusted by the female race Hamlet’s outlook doesn’t really reflect Shakespeare’s attitude of women.
In Gertrude’s choice to marry so soon after her husband’s death she transgresses the patriarchal bound of femininity. She refuses to remain in passive grief and obedient devotion to his memory. Gertrude’s sin was her inaction. She was willing to accept Claudius and didn’t think twice of rejecting him. In Hamlet’s eyes his father was the very d...
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...er of. Only in her insanity does she live up to Hamlets false perceptions of her as a provocative woman as she sings of lost virtue and sinful matters.
When Ophelia commits suicide Shakespeare proves he doesn’t only view women as passive and accepting. In Ophelia’s self intended death she refuses to live miserably in a life that denies her. In her death she lashes out at the world accusing it of being so in tolerable that even death was preferable to living. In Ophelia’s character Shakespeare places vulnerability on one hand yet a kind of nobility in the other demonstrating his opinion of women is not of single mind and temperament but each character has her own vices and virtues, her own ideas and beliefs. Shakespeare portrays women as both, passive and active, disgraceful and noble, apathetic and loving; they are themselves.
Works Cited
Hamlet by Shakespeare
Heilbrun, Carolyn G. (2002). Hamlet's Mother and Other Women. 2nd ed. West Sussex: Columbia University Press.
Although steps have been made towards equality in the aspect of gender, plays such as Hamlet contain views of the past. Hamlet was written in the early 1600’s, which is known as the Renaissance period. In this time period, women were treated differently than they are now. During the
All the females are oppressed as well and class does not matter. Women were treated as inferior and it did not matter whether the woman was a queen or a peasant. The motif of female oppression plays a big role with all of the females in the play. Hamlet is even guilty of oppressing women whether it is the queen/mother or a common girl/girlfriend because he reduces the women in his life to archetypes—that is, the cunning lover and the frenetic past lover. Hamlet’s oppression of women was a result of his mother’s action to remarry with his uncle and this causes Hamlet to despise and loath women. Though Hamlet has known these women before the death of his father, he is so wrapped up in revenge that he cannot treat them fairly. Hamlet insulted Gertrude by yelling out, “frailty, thy name is woman!” (1.2.150) When Hamlet talks about frailty, he is talking about weakness. Gertrude is the epitome of weakness to Hamlet because of her foolish act of remarrying which Hamlet views as a
...f the women takes away from their influence and their honour, giving Hamlet an extent of dominance over both women. Hamlet often discusses his mother’s sexuality, and he denounces Gertrude based on her sexual activities. Hamlet also takes advantage of Ophelia’s faked innocence, and exposes her sexuality. By revealing the truth about Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet deprives these two women of their authority, and destroys their formerly respected reputations.
In today’s day and age, a controversial topic of discussion is gender. Traditionally, there are only two genders: male and female. However, many people are starting to recognize and identify as more than 50 different genders. People are slowly attempting to disassemble gender roles in an effort for equality. However, when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, women were rarely seen as anything other than a wife, mother, and in the case of some a pawn that could be used to manipulate for the good of someone else. Ophelia and Queen Gertrude are two examples of women who are used as pawns by the men in Hamlet.
Men overpowering women has always been a present topic in forms of literature since the female characters have been inactive. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare there are only two female characters that have a valid role in the plotline. In most plays and works of literature back during the Elizabethan Era there were no women in the plays since they could not perform. Even when women are expressed in the play they are do not have a huge role in the play. There was one play that had a main female role and multiple supporting roles, this play was Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Mostly, men are the ones included in the dialogue while rarely women were allowed to make their own decisions in this play. Hamlet by William Shakespeare shows
Women and love play a strong and important role in the play Hamlet. Shakespeare created the main character Hamlet to hide his true emotions by directing them toward the women in his life. Hamlet lies and manipulates Ophelia into thinking that she has broken his heart by not loving him back and leads the other characters in the play to think the same. Hamlets writes a letter to Ophelia, “O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art/ to reckon my groans. But I love thee best, O most/ believe it. Adieu” (II.ii.119-121). Hamlet writes about his love for Ophelia, but his true desires ar...
Hamlets misogyny is not something that was engrained in his culture but what his mother has engrained within him. Hamlet hasn’t always hated women as he does now, his harsh treatment of Gertrude and Ophelia are because of their betrayal of his love. Hamlet knows that even though she has made mistakes she has not stopped being a mother to him, apart from that he stills feels anger towards her and the hate that he now feels for Ophelia is just a displacement of his feelings for his mothers, “the total reaction culminates in the bitter misogyny of his outburst against Ophelia…Hamlet is really expressing his bitter resentment against his mother” (1199) towards the poor and innocent Ophelia. His hate for women is just his frustration for his mother and Ophelia blinding him and not truly him hating women because in Ophelia’s grave he tells Laertes “I loved Ophelia, Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum.” (5.1.262) Hamlets repulsion against women is just him repressing his true love for the women in his life who have hurt him, “the powerful repression to which his sexual feelings are being subjected.”
Ever since Eve was fashioned from Adam’s rib, men have viewed women as objects that they use and abuse like an extension themselves. This idea exists because over time men have become to see themselves as superior beings. This idea has been reinforced by years of culture and tradition; it can be found in the media, the workplace and has even made its way into literature through the mind of William Shakespeare. In his play Hamlet, he explores themes of sexuality and how men view women. One of the ways he does is through the character, Hamlet, who has the idea that men are superior to women. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare the main character Hamlet, displays characteristics that proves that he is misogynist. These
The mindset of the unequal genders in the past is thought to have influenced the way playwright William Shakespeare portrayed females in his plays. Shakespeare exemplified this in his revenge tragedy Hamlet, written in 1601 with one of the most significant characters, Gertrude. She is central to the plot due to her relationship with the main character, Hamlet, being his mother. However, not only is she the mother to the tragic hero Hamlet, she is also widow to his laid father, King Hamlet Senior, and also newly wed to Hamlets uncle, Claudius. In this tragic play, we witness not only the downfall of women of the play in general, but specifically the falling out of Gertrude as a mother to Hamlet, as a wife to the new King Claudius, and as a woman herself.
Since Hamlet is notoriously the worst to the female sex, we will start with the assault on his character. Hamlet said "Frailty, thy name is woman,“ thus Hamlet believes his men are the epitome of stability and strength, right? Not really, but Hamlet's attitude toward women is definitely sexist and biased, and his hate seems to emanate from his revulsion at his mother's marriage to Claudius, which he considers “unfaithfulness” to his dead father. His attitude is totally unjustified.
In Shakespeare’s dramatic works there is no room for the heroic or the strong woman, and therefore many of his plays can be perceived as being antifeminist. Often he portrays women as weak, mad, sexual, and as even witches. Hamlet is no exception. The only women in the play, Ophelia and Queen Gertrude, are given confined and limited roles. These roles are from a male-dominated viewpoint and only add focus to the male characters instead of incorporating the insight and the impact of the women as well.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” women are used as method for men to get what they want. The men in Hamlet, either directly or indirectly continuously use women to acquire something from other men. The only two women in the entire play are Gertrude and Ophelia, who are consistently used by the current king, Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet. Ophelia is exploited by Polonius and the King (mainly together), and is also used by Hamlet. Gertrude is used by the King, as well as Polonius. In “Hamlet,” the women throughout the play are used as pawns for men to get what they want, mainly from the other men.
For many years in the past women played a small role socially, economically, and politically. As a result of this many works in literature were reflective of this diminutive role of women. In Elizabethan theatres small boys dressed and played the roles of women. In contrast to this trend, in Shakespeare's Hamlet the women in the play are driving factors for the actions of many other characters. Both Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and Ophelia, Hamlet's love, affected many of the decisions and actions done by Hamlet.
For many years, in the older eras, women had always been categorized as insignificant, and worthless. Because of this, women were forced to conform to the stereotype of depending on men, and were subjected to what the men said. William Shakespeare demonstrates this in the play Hamlet. The women are portrayed to deserve their fate because of their inability to be independent and their ability to be easily influenced. In the play, Shakespeare demonstrates that both Gertrude and Ophelia deserve their fate.